Source: Corporate Staffing Survey

With thousands of graduates in the job market, employers will only look for graduates who have specific skills for the job. A research recently done by Corporate Staffing Services revealed the top skills most employers search for when hiring fresh graduates.

Top Skills Kenyan Employers Look For In Graduates

1. Leadership Experience
64.3% of the employers consider leadership experience in determining the best candidates. This is because such graduates are found to be outspoken, team players,flexible as well as those who take initiative.

Job seekers need to acquire these skills as the majority of employers are keen on leadership experience.

If you have leadership qualities, you might be just what Kenyan employers are looking for.

2. Volunteering Experience
60% of employers feel that a graduate needs to have enough volunteering experience. According to employers, those who volunteered already understand the basic employer expectation, office etiquette and behavior.

A volunteering experience can be acquired when in school or out of college. At the end of it all, you are looking to gain valuable work experience in the job market.

3. Educational Attainment
Many employers will prefer a candidate who meets the education threshold. Out of the possible 64% of employers, 53% will consider hiring a candidate who has attained the educational requirements.

This means that as a graduate, you need to posses exemplary educational certification that will make you stand out from the rest of the candidates.

4. Extracurricular Activities Experience
According to the survey, 49.4% of employers look at the involvement of the fresh graduates in extracurricular activities.

Getting involved in activities outside of your studies is great for both personal, professional as well as practical reasons.

Be it being a member of a theatre group while in school or involving yourself in community activities, an extracurricular activity is equally important.

Your ability to successfully cope with multiple obligations, is one of the key skills employers are looking for.

5. Knowledge in a foreign language
The survey further revealed that only 6% of the Kenyan employers would consider employing a fresh graduate on the basis of foreign language knowledge or fluency.

We live in an increasingly globalized world where companies are constantly expanding overseas and dealing with clients from all over the world. This is one of the reasons why an employer will most likely consider a candidate who is bilingual.

Are you a fresh graduate seeking to be employed? These skills mentioned above will make you stand out in the job market.

Source: Corporate Staffing Services Survey

By Elizabeth Benu

A recent survey conducted by Corporate Staffing Services revealed HR Professionals are usually challenged when they have to choose between two equally qualified candidates for the same position.

Out of the 208 employers who participated, here are the key attributes they look for when forced to choose between two equally qualified candidates.

Top 5 Skills For Best Job Candidates

1. Area of specialization
61.6% of the employers use this to identify the right candidate. This shows that a candidate should concentrate on gaining experience in their areas of specialization.

For example, sales jobs are continually becoming everyone’s job: whether you have the qualifications or not. If an employer has a problem choosing between a candidate with a background and experience in sales and marketing and one with experience in sales, but has a background in IT, the sales and marketing graduate will be chosen because the job falls under their specialty.

As a candidate, strive to gain experience in the area you have studied in

2. Leadership Experience
This is a criteria used by 40.7% of the employers. This because such a candidate has an ability to manage themselves and teams and can take responsibility and are accountable.

For example, if you are a candidate who has held any leadership roles in your past, be it in a job or in school an employer will pick you because you can take charge of achieving company goals and commit yourself to high level performance.

3. Candidate affordability
34.5% look at a candidate’s remuneration expectation. A lot has been emphasized on the need to have salary expectations that are in line with the market rates.

Most companies are looking for a candidate who is affordable and can do an impeccable job.

A case in point is an IT Assistant who wants to earn Kshs.110,000 and another who wants Kshs.92,000.

4. Industry Experience
31.6% of the employers are interested in industry experience because they believe that a candidate without any experience will take too long to get up to speed to be successful and they are doubtful if they will make the position a successful one.

Candidates are therefore advised to gain valuable experience, be it in volunteering or internships.

5. Education Attainment
According to the survey, 26% agree that a certificate, diploma or degree, education matters in job placement. Education forms a basis of any career success because it reveals that a job seeker has what it takes to focus on a particular subject or industry and develop within it.

Education also shows that a candidate is worth investing in and serves as a reference to a job seeker’s reliability and professional promise.

That being said, improving on the above skills makes you better placed when an employer has to choose between two equally qualified candidates.

Getting a raise is the best thing for an employee. However, the feeling of being financially well off can lead to poor spending habits.

Mercy Cherono* had a salary raise of 30% to Kshs. 65, 000. She had been earning 50, 000 earlier on and with the salary raise she started spending on unnecessary things such as designer clothes and fast foods from all joints in Nairobi. She is now in debt and wondering where she went wrong.

Tips to help you manage money after getting a pay raise

1. Stick to your original budget
Just because you are earning more money does not mean you should shop for vegetables in the supermarket instead of city market or ‘marikiti’.

“It is a common mistake for people to expand their budgets to fit their new salary. I do not advocate for this because it adds unnecessary expenses on to your budget. Sticking to that budget restricts you from overspending,” says Boniface Njuguna, a Financial Analyst at The East Africa Breweries Limited.

2. Save! Save! Save!
As cliché as it is, saving is important for you. Alison Green, a job search and career advice with HR experience says that savings provide you with a piece of mind when disaster strikes. For example, if you lose a job, you can use your savings to pay rent and provide for your basic needs.

“A common mistake people make when they get a big raise is that they raise their expenses commensurately — and as a result they don’t really better their financial security. Don’t do that,” cautions Ms. Green.

4.Pay off debts to help you manage money after getting a pay raise

A larger percentage of Kenyan graduates are struggling to pay their HELB Loans. If you are in this situation, it is advisable to pay off a larger amount than before.

This allows you to take care of other financial responsibilities which were previously limited because you are paying off your student loan.

5. Think of investment ideas.
“If you have been saving, do not let the money idle in your savings account. After you have established a solid financial base, start making investments with it. It keeps more money coming into your account,” adds Mr. Njuguna.

6. Avoid expensive hobbies
Recently, a survey by PricewaterhouseCoooper (PwC) revealed that Nairobi residents had the fastest growing spending on entertainment in Africa. The youth spends a considerable amount of money in Coffee shops, restaurants and fast-food joints.

While this will make you appear cool, Andrew Makhulo, an Accountant at MGK Consultants says that it will leave you broke.

“One can reconsider these kinds of activities and see what other options they may have or cut down on the amount of money they invest in such activities,” advices Mr. Makhulo.

Did you get a pay raise or are you anticipating one? Use the following tips to manage your money.

One of the most commonly asked interview questions and one that candidates find difficult to answer is tell me about yourself.

While interviewing, I have seen fresh graduates panic when asked this question. I have also witnessed experienced candidates mumble words and come out as unprofessional. This question scares candidates and does not discriminate on the profession or gender.

Whenever I interact with jobseekers, majority want to know why employers insist on “tell me about yourself” as the first interview question. After all, it is correct to assume that an employer knows all, but they still want to know more about you. This is despite the fact that they spent a considerable time going through your CV before inviting you for an interview.

The “tell me about yourself” interview question is an ice breaker. It also sets the tone of the interview. Perform well, and you have the interviewer impressed. Get it wrong and it’s downhill all the way and very fast. Apart from your appearance and body language, this is the second most important part of an interview and I can say without exaggerating that interviews are won or lost at this stage.

So, how do you go winning an interviewer by answering the ‘tell me about yourself” interview question?

What you need to realize and this is where majority of candidates go wrong, is that this question can be rephrased as tell me about your professional life. I.e. The interviewer wants to know about your career and how it relates to the current job. The challenge most candidates face is that they are not sure whether the employer wants them to talk about their professional or personal lives. From today, concentrate on your professional life UNLESS the interviewer asks a personal question.

Another point is the need to keep your answer short and to the point. As I had mentioned in the opening, employers have had time to go through your CV and don’t want you repeating how you went to this nursery school up to where you are now an MBA holder. They also not so keen on your experience stretching fifteen ago when you were an intern to the managerial role that you have.

What Kenyan employers want to know with the tell me about yourself interview question is how your experience, be it current or former relates to the job you are being interviewed. It is as simple as that.

This helps an employer score you in two ways. Number one, the employer will get to know whether you took the time to go through the job description. Secondly, an employer will assess whether you know the kind of experience it will take to succeed in this role and how your current or past job has equipped you with such skills.

Another area that brings confusion to candidates is how long you should take in answering tell me about yourself interview question. This varies depending on one’s work experience. However, if you ask me, an ideal time is between two and three and a half minutes. Less than that is too short and will not convince an employer and more than that is too long and you might end up giving irrelevant information or boring the interviewer.

So, how do you go about answering “Tell me about Yourself” in a job interview?

Step one is to introduce yourself and a few personal details i.e. my name is Jane jobseeker and I am 25 years old. That’s the far you go with the introduction. Don’t mention how you grew up in Nairobi and later in Mombasa when your father got a transfer etc.

Step two is to mention your education background. Here you start with your highest qualification to the lowest. Using Jane as an example, she can say that she is a holder of a business management degree from the University of Nairobi and a diploma in customer service from the Kenya Institute of Management. If she has a certificate, she can also mention i.e. I have a certificate in public relations from ICM. Do not go mentioning the grades you got i.e. first class, lower etc or KCSE grades. Reason being, the employer has those details on the CV.

The third and most important step is mentioning your work experience. Assuming you have gone through the employer job description, you can approach this section in two ways. Either, you can give an overview of your experience, highlighting how your previous or current role has exposed you to what the interviewer is looking for. Secondly, and you might find this easy, is to take the interviewer through each role you have performed while mentioning the specific experience that matches the employers JD.

Those with less than five years experience will find mentioning each job they have had and how it matches employers needs easy while those with many years are better off summarizing their experience and choosing to highlight only the relevant experience.

Assume Jane is applying for a customer care job and the job description has the following as the top duties

1. Answering calls
2. Keeping the reception area clean
3. In charge of petty cash
4. In charge of internal and external communication
5. Supervising casuals etc.

From the duties listed, she can answer the experience part as follows. While working for XYZ Company, I was in charge of the front office and my main duties included answering telephone calls and diverting them to the necessary departments. I was also in charge of communication by liaising with the office messenger in ensuring that they delivered company letters in time. I also had a petty cash float of K’sh 15,000 a month. This was to ensure that the office never run out of supplies including printing papers, cleaning materials and repairing minor breakages. During my stay at XYZ Company I not only supervised casuals but ensured accurate payment of their wages after every two weeks.

The last part in answering tell me about yourself is to indicate why you are interested in this position. To still use Jane, she can mention something towards additional duties and responsibilities i.e. Looking at your job description I can see that it will be the responsibility of the customer care officer to be in charge of the managing director diary. This will be an added responsibility from what I am currently handling and a chance to learn how to organize a high profile office. This is a major reason why I am keen on this role as it will help me grow as a customer care professional and give me exposure on office administration duties.

There you have it, answering tell me about yourself need not be confusing. However, if you have a question and some tips to add, write in the comments section below.

Perminus has over ten years experience in human resource management working with employers from different sectors. His major goal is to build relationships with employers in order to gain a better understanding of their recruitment needs and meet the requirements in a cost effective and timely manner.

Envy is something that we’ve probably all encountered at some point in either our professional or personal lives. Whether it’s someone getting paid more than us or earning the affection of our boss, there are plenty of times when the green eyed monster comes out to play.
It’s easy to believe, therefore, that envy is something that can only ever have negative consequences at work, and there is much to support that perspective.

One study found, for instance, that there are numerous destructive elements to envy in the workplace, with those among us with especially large egos particularly vulnerable.

“Suppose your supervisor gives your coworker a raise and not you, a raise you feel was given for an arbitrary reason,” the research says. “You would be more likely to undermine your co-worker as a means of expressing this hostility.”

The study found that there are generally three things that regularly make us jealous at work:

1. Being outperformed by a colleague
2. Does the area of this out performance matter to us?
3. How near to us is the reference point to the person of which we’re jealous?

So, in other words, jealousy comes into play when a colleague does better than us in a field that is highly important to our self esteem.  All of which seems reasonable enough, but what is the impact of this on the workplace?

A second study explored the impact of jealousy and found it significantly damaged trust levels at work. The impact was particularly strong in workplaces where the culture was more competitive than collaborative. Such a culture often sees employees comparing their own achievements with those of their peers.

The frequency of envy

Sadly, it seems that jealousy is frequently found in the modern workplace. A third study revealed that 58 percent of employees had experienced some circumstances that made them envious of colleagues at work. The authors suggest that this figure is so high because of the social comparison effect. We’re constantly looking for how we compare with our peers, with this status reflected in our pay, our treatment, and ultimately our success at the company.

What’s more, many organisations make a big deal of highlighting the successes enjoyed by people, which makes it incredibly clear who’s doing great things and who is not. This may be wonderful if the spotlight shines on you, but it may have unintended consequences for those who aren’t given a shout out.

The paper recommends that organisations create certain schemas, or rules of thumb if you will. These heuristics should be rules we can all abide by and are created from of our experiences. Thus, the more often certain events reoccur, the more likely they are to develop into schemas, and the harder it becomes for employees to look past this particular version of reality.

The paper concludes by warning how our typical response to such a schema is usually a negative one. We might curse under our breath for instance or spread a malignent rumour about a colleague.

It underlines how important it is that we promote people based upon their merits, and more importantly, that we ensure that all employees feel that such promotions are within their reach too.

Does your workplace suffer from a huge amount of envy or foster a culture of envy? What effect does this have on the staff? Your thoughts and comments below please..

Source : http://www.careeraddict.com

Source: Monster

“Think before you speak” is always a good policy — and at work it’s even more important. Saying the wrong thing to your boss can do serious damage to your career — and some of the things bosses don’t like to hear may surprise you.

We checked in with some managers and came up with this list of nine phrases they strongly dislike — and we’ll tell you what you should say instead:

1. “I need a raise.”
Never enter salary negotiations talking about what you need — because of rising costs or a new expense, for instance. Your employer doesn’t care about your financial problems. However, management probably does want to reward success and keep high-performing employees satisfied.

A raise request should always be supported by evidence of what you’ve achieved for the company — along with information about what people with your responsibilities typically earn.

2. “That just isn’t possible.”
Always speak to your boss in terms of what can be done. For instance, rather than saying “We can’t get this done by Friday,” say “We could definitely get this done by Monday, or if we brought in some interns, we could meet the

Friday deadline.” When you talk to your boss, think in terms of solving problems for her, not in terms of putting problems on her plate.

3. “I can’t stand working with ____.”
Complaining about a coworker’s personality usually reflects more poorly on you than on the coworker. Don’t make these kinds of conflicts your boss’s problem. Of course, management is interested in problems that jeopardize the company’s ability to function.

If you have to speak to HR about a problem such as a colleague’s threatening, illegal or unethical behavior, keep your tone professional and the focus on work — not personal issues.

4. “I partied too hard last night — I’m so hung over!”
Buck up and get through the day with some painkillers and coffee. But don’t share the sordid details of your night on the town with your boss. Even if you have a friendly relationship, he’s just as likely to react with (unspoken) disdain as sympathy.

Maintaining a solid veneer of professionalism will pay off when it’s time to discuss promotions.

5. “But I emailed you about that last week.”
Alerting your boss to a problem via email doesn’t absolve you of all responsibility for it. Bosses hate the “out of my outbox, out of my mind” attitude. Keep tabs on all critical issues you know about — and keep checking in until you hear a firm “You don’t need to worry about that anymore.”

6. “It’s not my fault.”
Are you a whiny 8-year-old or a take-charge professional? Assume responsibility and take steps to fix a problem that you did, in fact, create. And if you are being wrongly blamed for a problem, saying “Let’s get to the bottom of this” or “What can we do to make it right?” is much more effective than saying “It’s not my fault.”

7. “I don’t know.”
If your boss asks you a question you can’t answer, the correct response is not “I don’t know.” It’s “I’ll find out right away.”

8. “But we’ve always done it this way.”
You may find yourself with a new boss who wants to try new things — and the best way to present yourself as a workplace relic is to meet change with a “we do it this way because this is the way we do it” attitude.

When a brainstorming session takes place, be part of it and stay open to new ideas. If you have concerns about a new idea’s feasibility, say “I think for this to work, we will have to…” Don’t kill new ideas with negativity.

Top 6 Skills Employers Look For in Banking Job Seekers

By Elizabeth Benu,

“I have a diploma in Business (finance options) and currently looking for a job in the Banking Industry. Are there any skills that I should have to make me a better candidate for a banking job?” asks Jonah Mureithi in an email.

Florence Mukunya, a Career advisor and CV Writer at Corporate Staffing Services, confirms that the banking industry is one of the most competitive in Kenya.

“Most banking employers are looking for candidates who can work well even with the long hours,” she adds.

With this she lists the following skills that will put you forward in the banking industry:

Skills Needed for Banking Jobs in Kenya

Thorough Industry Knowledge
As a fast growing industry, banking professionals are expected to have sound knowledge of finance and the economy, banking regulations and new changes within the industry.

For example, you should know why the lenders cite a flourishing net interest income and growing returns on loans and advances. You could also have ideas of how to meet the growing demands in the banking sector to further enhance the growth of the banks in the long term.

Analytical Thinking
Analytical skill is the ability to visualize, articulate, and solve both complex and uncomplicated problems and concepts and make decisions that are sensible and based on available information.

As an industry with a focus on the economy, a job applicant should be able to think outside the box, solve problems and predict and avert problems before they materialize.

Analytical skills are essential in the workplace and include analyzing volumes of data, problem solving, programming, report writing, handling assignments effectively and gathering information.

Ability to work under pressure
Your job in the industry involves demanding objectives,rigid and changing deadlines and many targets to meet. Even with this, a banking professional is expected to work efficiently and offer the best service to customers.

Such can be evidenced through: dealing with an emergency, overcoming problems to achieve goals, taking up responsibilities if a team member drops out and managing well when there is too much work and less colleagues.
Customer Service skills are needed in banking job applicants

How good are you at handling people? Even when you are having a bad day, you are expected to deliver customer satisfaction and timely redressing of customer complaints.

These skills include patience, attentiveness, clear communication skills, ability to ‘read’ customers and persuasion.

Thoroughness or accuracy skills
Remember you are dealing with money here and accounting for every single shilling and accurate account balances is the order of the day.

Ethical conduct
Money is sensitive. In an industry that has you in direct contact with money an employer has to make sure that you are honest enough not to transfer funds into your account or steal from customers.